With The Union’s celebration of its second year in newsprint following this historic newspaper’s 12-year absence, it seems appropriate to review a little of The Union’s history, as well as answer the very important and often asked question, “What happened to The Union’s archives?”

This is certainly a very good question that is quite deserving of attention and for one reason: The Union, which celebrated the second anniversary of its reemergence to newsprint on July 21, recently paid a visit to the UC Davis Special Collections, which houses a portion of The Union’s archives.

A Home in Davis
Although far from complete, this newspaper collection at UC Davis is nonetheless an impressive assemblage of hundreds of bound volumes of original Union newspapers, ranging from September 1862 to April 1980. These volumes are stored off-campus and are not available for the public to view and handle, due to the rarity and fragileness of old newsprint and the fact that The Union can be viewed on microfilm at libraries in both Davis and Sacramento.

Among the largest segments of the UC Davis Union archives is a collection of 310 12-inch-long by eight-inch-wide by six-inch-tall boxes of press photograph negatives, ranging from 1966 to 1994. Each box contains an average of 20 images, a large majority of which never made their way to newsprint.

The collection also includes advertising records, wire service files, public notices, press kits and sports clippings from 1986 to 1990.

John Skarstad, archivist of the UC Davis Special Collections, was responsible for the acquisition of The Union collection, which also features a very important piece of The Union’s past—the 3-foot-tall bronze bust of Mark Twain that formerly sat in the lobby of the daily Union’s headquarters at 301 Capitol Mall.

Skarstad said that he first heard of the availability of The Union’s archives in 2000, through former UC Davis development office worker Gil Apaka, who had attended a luncheon and sat next to Stephen Danel, one of the newspaper’s last owners.

During the luncheon, Danel told Apaka that The Union’s archives were still in the possession of the Danel family and that he might be willing to donate the archives to the UC Davis Special Collections.

Skarstad said that following the luncheon, Apaka called him by telephone and informed him about his finding and the possibility that the Special Collections might be able to acquire The Union’s archives.

“[Apaka] said, ‘What do you think about getting the archives of The Sacramento Union ,’” Skarstad said. “I said, ‘Oh, that’s kind of crazy. Hasn’t anybody gotten it?’ He said, ‘No, the last owners of The Union have got it.’ So, I said, ‘Well, then give me a number.’”

Excited about the possibility of acquiring the archives for the Special Collections, Skarstad spoke to the head of the Special Collections, Clint Howard, who agreed that obtaining the historic newspaper’s archives would be a positive maneuver on the part of the university.

Following his discussion with Howard, Skarstad called Danel and set up an appointment to view The Union’s archives.

“I visited Danel [at a storage facility off Power Inn Road] and I saw this impressive array of file cabinets and the [Mark Twain] bust,” Skarstad said. “[Danel] said, ‘Are you interested? Do you want all this stuff?’ It was visually a lot, but I said, ‘Yes, we already decided to do this.’”

Skarstad said that Danel was initially hesitant to donate the Twain bust, but eventually conceded to do so.

“I told him, ‘The bust I need to have, as well. That, to me, is sort of the thing on which this rests, because of Mark Twain’s California experiences. But it’s also, for our purposes, going to be the notion of what The Union is,’” Skarstad said.

On another note, Skarstad said that he was disappointed to discover that outside of the bound volumes, The Union’s archives did not predate the last half of the 20th century.

Skarstad added that unfortunately The Union’s emphasis on preserving the heritage of the newspaper was not always a high priority.

The Missing Papers
In wondering what happened to the earlier Union archives, Skarstad called various archival agencies to inquire about the existence of such archives.

Through a conversation with Sacramento historian Jim Henley of the Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center, Skarstad discovered that SAMCC was housing some earlier Union archives.

“It turned out that [SAMCC] had some earlier Union items [such as photographs and miscellaneous paperwork from the 1940s to 1960s], because one of the Union librarians back in the 70s had called Jim Henley and was relatively upset, saying, ‘The Union has put a lot of things in the parking lot for anyone to pick up and take, if they want. So, if you’re interested, [the items are here].’ [SAMCC] sent over somebody to get what they could get, but it had already been picked over. And we don’t know how many times various owners have done that. It’s one of those crisp business mentalities. They had chopped off the heritage of the firm, so that they wouldn’t have to manage it.”

In addition to these items acquired in the 1970s, it was discovered that SAMCC’s collection includes a complete collection of The Union, from 1854 to 1915 (missing from their collections are editions from 1851-1854).

Outside of the UC Davis and SAMCC Union archives, California State University, Sacramento and the California State Library also have collections of bound volumes of The Union. UC Davis records also indicate that the State Library has the Ted Baggelmann scrapbooks, which feature a large collection of Union columns and series articles from 1902 to 1990.

Concerning the whereabouts of other early Union archives, Skarstad said, “Nobody knows.”

Skarstad added, however, that he expects that other Union archives will eventually resurface and be donated to historical agencies as families move and generations change.

The Union archives that have been preserved in the possession of UC Davis were organized through hundreds of hours of student labor and placed in temperature-regulated rooms, set at 63 degrees and 40 percent humidity.

An Honored Archive
When asked to describe the importance of The Union collection at UC Davis, Skarstad said that the collection is “extremely important” and added that the initial publicity regarding the acquisition of The Union archives was greater than he had seen for any collection that the university’s Special Collections had ever received.

Skarstad said that the Union collection is most beneficial to historians and the readers of the works of historians.

“This collection of the Union material gives us a large number of resources for historians for the last half of the 20th century, basically,” Skarstad said. “So, when we look at the retirement of the Air Force bases, social events, whether it’s weddings, whether it’s car accidents, they are all part of what happens here and the historian can approach the Union collection and select the pieces that help make the story either more entertaining, more complete or more useful to subsequent readers.”

Daryl Morrison, head of the Special Collections, said that she also appreciates that UC Davis houses a portion of The Union’s archives.

“It is wonderful that we have The Sacramento Union archives that describe this region’s activities and will be available as historical documentary evidence for today’s researchers and future generations,” Morrison said.

Union Reborn
About the present-day Union, Skarstad said that he wishes the newspaper a prosperous future.

“When I saw [today’s version of] The Union in the box, I was somewhat surprised,” Skarstad said. “It’s not the same paper, but it’s chugging again. By going, [again] there’s a chance for more [competition]. The whole notion of being a competitor [is important]. News needs competition, so I’m happy to see competition back in town.”

And with the return of this competition, The Union stands firm in its efforts to expand and enhance public discourse and to bring a much needed alternative voice to the newspaper scene of the capital city of the most populated state in the nation.

To read an expanded version of this story and a special historical feature on the early days of The Union, visit http://www.SacUnion.com.